Large scale  real-time multistaged analytic system using data contracts

ABSTRACT

An analytic system may have a number of processing stages. One or more data sources may provide data to a first processing stage. The first processing stage may specify one or more data contracts having a schema describing a layout and types of data provided by the one or more data sources. Each of the processing stages may specify a respective data contract having a schema such that the processing stages may understand a layout and types of data provided as input to the processing stages. The data contracts me further specify a valid range of values for various items of data described by schemas. Data not conforming to a data contract may be automatically filtered out such that a corresponding processing stage may not be provided with the non-conforming data.

BACKGROUND

An analytic system such as, for example, a web analytic system, may have three basic components, a data collection component, a data processing component and a data visualization component. Instrumentation data may be generated from various data sources including, but not limited to, an end-user client application, an application/web server, as well as other data sources, which may provide varied instrumentation that each application records and measures. As a result, each of the components of an analytic system may receive heterogeneous data with varied schema and semantics. Heterogeneity is eventually propagated from the data collection component to lower layers of the analytic system, such as, for example, data processing and data visualization.

Some existing analytic systems process heterogeneous data from different data sources by transforming the heterogeneous data to produce transformed data conforming to a generic schema in early stages of the analytic systems. The analytic systems then operate on the transformed data. However, these analytic systems are inefficient due to processing overhead for transforming the heterogeneous data, and storage and processing overhead due to mapping an application-specific schema to a generic schema for much of a processing pipeline. In addition, the analytic systems may inefficiently use processing/storage capabilities if many attributes of the generic schema are unused. Further, because data processing in the analytic systems is tightly coupled with the generic schema, any changes or upgrades to the systems are propagated through various components or layers.

SUMMARY

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that is further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

In embodiments consistent with the subject matter of this disclosure, a multi-staged data analytics system has a number of processing stages. Each processing stage of the processing stages has respective data contracts with regarding data to be consumed by the each processing stage and data to be produced by the each processing stage for a next processing stage. The schemas may specify a layout of data and types of the data. Names of the data in a data contract may be changed to a simpler or more meaningful name for a processing stage. Because data processing is based on data contracts, various embodiments consistent with the subject matter of this disclosure may be adaptive and flexible with respect to any changes in provided data. For example, a change in provided data may result in one or more data contracts being reconfigured with no changes with respect to processing of the processing stages.

DRAWINGS

In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features can be obtained, a more particular description is described below and will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understand that these drawings depict only typical embodiments and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope. Implementations will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary operating environment for various embodiments consistent with the subject matter of this disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of an exemplary computing device which may implement a portion of an analytic system or a complete analytic system.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an exemplary data pipeline with a number of processing stages and a number of data sources providing data to the data pipeline.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary data pipeline in one embodiment consistent with the subject matter of this disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a SQL example showing an exemplary schema of a data contract.

FIG. 6 is a SQL example showing a portion of a visualization processing stage in one embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an exemplary flow diagram for a data flow in one exemplary embodiment of an analytic system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Overview

A data contract specifies a layout of input data (or inter-stage data) consumed by a component of an analytic system. Embodiments consistent with the subject matter of this disclosure may use data contracts with respect to data that crosses a processing stage boundary of a data pipeline of an analytic system. As an example, assume an analytic system, such as a web analytic system, that has multiple processing stages in a data pipeline. In one embodiment, the multiple processing stages may include a data collection processing stage, a data aggregation processing stage, and a data visualization processing stage. A data contract with respect to data provided to the data collection processing stage from each of one or more data sources may specify a schema with respect to the data from each of the one or more data sources, such that the data collection processing stage understands a layout and a type of the data received from each of the one or more data sources. A data contract with respect to data provided to the data aggregation processing stage may specify a schema, such that the data aggregation processing stage understands a layout and a type of the provided data. A data contract with respect to a data visualization processing stage may specify a schema, such that the data visualization processing stage understands a layout and a type of the data provided to the data visualization processing stage.

When a change occurs with respect to data provided to a processing stage of the pipeline, only a data contract for the processing stage may change. Processing logic of the processing stage may remain unchanged. Thus, processing logic of each respective processing stage may be decoupled from any schemas specified by the data contracts, resulting in an analytic system with a highly flexible design.

Exemplary Operating Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary operating environment 100 for various embodiments consistent with the subject matter of this disclosure. Operating environment 100 may include computing devices 102, 104, 106, which may be connected with one another via a network 108. One embodiment may be implemented in any one of computing devices 102, 104, 106 or various portions of an embodiment may be implemented in two or more of computing devices 102, 104, 106. The two or more of computing devices 102, 104, 106 may communicate with each other via network 108, which may be a single network or a combination of networks of various types including, but not limited to, a packet switching network, a frame relay network, a fiber optic network, the Internet, or other types of networks.

Although operating environment 100 shows three computing devices that may implement an embodiment, other embodiments may be implemented in only one computing device or two or more computing devices communicating with one another via one or more networks. In an embodiment implemented by only one computing device, the one computing device may or may not be connected to a network.

Exemplary Processing Devices

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary computing device 200, which may be used to implement a single or multiple computing device embodiment consistent with the subject matter of this disclosure. Computing device 200 may be a server, a personal computer (PC), or another type of computing device. Computing device 200 may include hardware, such as a processor 260, a bus 210, a memory, which may include a combination of random access memory (RAM) 230 and read only memory (ROM) 240, a storage device 270, an input device 220, an output device 250 and a communication interface 280.

Processor 260 may include one or more conventional processors that interpret and execute instructions. RAM 230, ROM 240, and/or another type of dynamic or static storage medium, respectively, may store information and instructions for execution by processor 260. RAM 230, or another type of dynamic storage medium, may store instructions as well as temporary variables or other intermediate information used during execution of instructions by processor 260. ROM 240, or another type of static storage medium, may store static information and instructions for processor 260. Some embodiments of computing device 200 may further include a hardware logic component, including, but not limited to, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) (not shown) and/or a field programmable gate array (FPGA) (not shown) that may be combined with instructions in memory 230, 240 to cause computing device 200 to perform a method.

Input device 220 may include a keyboard, a pointing device, or other device for providing input. Output device 250 may include a display, a printer, or other device for outputting information. Communication interface 280 may include a transceiver for sending and receiving information via network 108

Storage device 270 may include a machine-readable storage medium such as, for example, a magnetic disk, a writable optical disc, a flash RAM device, or other type of machine-readable storage media for storing data, instructions, or other information for more than a transitory time period. Non-limiting examples of storage device 270 may also include Digital Video Disk (DVD), compact Disk (CD), or other types of storage devices using other types of machine-readable storage media for storing data and/or instructions for later use.

Computing device 200 may communicate with other devices via a communication medium, which may include, but not be limited to a propagated signal on a carrier wave and may perform functions in response to processor 260 executing sequences of instructions contained in a machine-readable storage medium. Such instructions may be read into a machine-readable storage medium, including, but not limited to, RAM 230 from another machine-readable storage medium or from a separate device via communication interface (280).

Embodiments

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary data pipeline 300 in an embodiment of an analytic system. Data pipeline 300 may include multiple processing stages 301, 302, . . . 399. Processing stage 301 may receive data from one or more data sources. Processing stage 301 may include respective data contracts specifying a respective schema for data provided from respective data sources. Processing stage 302 may input data processed or provided by processing stage 301 and may include a data contract specifying a schema for the data processed or provided by processing stage 302 . . . . Similarly, processing stage 399 may input data processed or provided by processing stage 398 (not shown) and may include a data contract specifying a schema for the data processed by processing stage 398.

Although FIG. 3 illustrates 99 process stages, an exemplary analytic system may have fewer processing stages, such as, for example, two processing stages, three processing stages, or another number of processing stages.

FIG. 4 illustrates a data pipeline 400 for an exemplary web analytic system. Data pipeline 400 may include a collection processing stage 402, an aggregation processing stage 404 and a visualization processing stage 406. Collection processing stage 402 may be provided with data from one or more data sources. The one or more data sources may include, but not be limited to, one or more files, output from one or more applications, data from one or more databases, as well as other data sources. Collection processing stage 402 may include respective data contracts specifying a schema with respect to data from each of the one or more data sources. Aggregation processing stage 404 may be provided with input data processed by collection processing stage 402 and may include a data contract specifying a schema of the data provided by collection processing stage 402. Visualization processing stage 406 may be provided with input data processed by aggregation processing stage 404. In one embodiment, visualization processing stage 406 may process data in a database. Visualization processing stage 406 may include a data contract specifying a schema for the provided input data. Visualization processing stage 406 may render the provided data to produce a chart or a graph 408.

FIG. 5 is exemplary SQL code having a data contract that specifies a schema for provided input data such that an aggregation processing stage may process the provided input data. The specified schema of the data contract is shown in bold. Line 502 indicates that the following lines specify a definition of a new schema. Line 504 specifies a name of the new schema as ‘Step 1 Schema’ containing seven items. The seven items, in this example, include: ‘Time’, which is in a particular format (date time) for specifying a date and a time; ‘Cluster’, which is a character string; ‘ItemId’, which is an integer; ‘CallerId’, which is in a default format (in this example, the default format is character string); ‘ApplicationID’, which is an integer; ‘RequestLength’, which is a long integer (in this example, a 64-bit integer); and ‘ResponseLength’, which is a long integer. Unbolded lines following the schema definition may include SQL statements for processing the provided data specified by the schema.

FIG. 6 is exemplary SQL code for a data visualization processing stage having a data contract (not shown) that specifies a schema for provided input data such that the data visualization processing stage may process the provided data. In this example, the data produced by an aggregation processing stage had previously been stored in a database. The data contract (not shown) included in the data visualization processing stage may specify the schema with respect to the data stored in the database that is to be processed by the data visualization processing stage. The schema may specify a table called dbo.ExportMachineSamples with columns called ‘Machine Count’, ‘Timestamp’, and ‘MachineKey’. A ‘Select’ command 602 indicates that the table ‘dbo.ExportMachineSamples’ is to be referred to as ‘ms’, the column ‘Machine Count’ is to be called ‘Series’, the column ‘Timestamp’ in the table now called ‘ms’ is to be called ‘Timestamp’, and a number of distinct values of the column ‘MachineKey’ are to be counted and stored in a variable referred to as ‘Data’. A ‘where’ clause of ‘Select’ command 602 specifies that the values for the column ‘Timestamp’ in the ‘ms’ table are in a range from @StartTime to @EndTime. Rows produced by ‘Select’ command 602 are to be ordered by values of the ‘Timestamp’ column in the ‘ms’ table, which are to be grouped by the values of the ‘Timestamp’ column.

A data binding section 604 binds a result column named ‘Series’ to ‘series’, a result column named, ‘Timestamp’ to ‘x-value’, and a result column called ‘Data’ to ‘y-value’. In this example, an xychart procedure of the data visualization processing stage receives the bound values for ‘series’, ‘x-value’ and ‘y-value’ and renders a graph or chart to an output device, such as, for example, a display device or other output device. In various embodiments, the visualization processing stage includes a number of user interface building blocks, such as, the xychart procedure, as well as other procedures for Venn diagrams, pie charts, histograms, and the like, which render the bound data.

Although the examples in FIGS. 5 and 6 are in SQL, other computer languages, such as, for example, other relational database languages, may be used in other embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow of data through an exemplary real-time multi-staged analytic data processing system. One or more data sources 702 may provide data for a collection processing stage 704. A data contract 703 between the one or more data sources may specify a schema defining a layout of the data provided to the collection processing stage 704. Collection processing stage 704 may collect the data provided by the one or more data sources and may provide the collected data for an aggregation processing stage 706 according to a data contract 707 between aggregation processing stage 706 and a data visualization processing stage 708, which may then render a graph or chart 710 via an output device.

Conclusion

Embodiments consistent with the subject matter of this disclosure effectively decouple application instrumentation from a processing stage that consumes data generated through instrumentation. As a result, various processing stages are completely independent from instrumentation methodology. Design of multistage analytic data processing systems, according to embodiments consistent with the subject matter of disclosure, is completely agnostic with respect to a schema and semantics of data to be processed by the multistage analytic data processing system. By defining data processing based on data contracts, embodiments of the multistage analytic data processing systems are kept very generic and adaptive for various applications. Further, because applications specify a data contract in the various embodiments, “garbage” data may be filtered-out from “non-garbage” data, hence safe-guarding themselves from corrupted data. In addition, a specified data contract may enable filtering out of data of no interest from data of interest.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms for implementing the claims.

Accordingly, the appended claims and their legal equivalents define embodiments, rather than any specific examples given. 

1. At least one computing device implementing a large-scale real-time multistaged analytic system, each of the at least one computing device comprising: at least processor; and a memory operatively connected with the at least one processor, the memory having instructions for the at least one processor to perform a method comprising: executing a plurality of processing stages of a pipeline for analyzing data, each processing stage of the plurality of processing stages using a respective data contract that specifies a description of inter-stage data to be exchanged across a respective processing stage boundary of the each processing stage, such that the each processing stage is completely agnostic with respect to a data schema and semantics of the inter-stage data consumed by the each processing stage, wherein when a change occurs with respect to data provided to a processing stage of the pipeline, in order to accommodate the change, a data contract that specifies a description of the data to be provided to the processing stage is changed and processing logic of the processing stage of the pipeline remains unchanged.
 2. The at least one computing device of claim 1, wherein: a first processing stage of the pipeline uses the respective data contract with respect to each of at least one source of data to be consumed by the first processing stage; and each remaining stage of the plurality of processing stages of the pipeline uses the respective data contract describing the inter-stage data provided by a respective previous processing stage in order for the each remaining stage of the plurality of processing stages of the pipeline to consume the inter-stage data from the respective previous processing stage.
 3. The at least one computing device of claim 1, wherein at least one data contract of the respective data contracts is specified such that bad data or data of no interest to the one or more processing stages associated with the at least one data contract are filtered out of the inter-stage data being provided to the one or more processing stages.
 4. The at least one computing device of claim 1, wherein a first processing stage of the plurality of processing stages is a collection processing stage for collecting data provided from at least one data source.
 5. The at least one computing device of claim 4, wherein: a second processing stage of the plurality of processing stages is an aggregation processing stage for processing data provided from the collection processing stage and aggregating the processed data, and the aggregation processing stage uses the respective data contract that specifies a schema of the data provided by the collection processing stage in order to consume the data from the collection processing stage.
 6. The at least one computing device of claim 5, wherein: a third processing stage of the plurality of processing stages is a visualization processing stage for rendering data provided to the visualization processing stage according to the respective data contract conforming to data provided to the visualization processing stage which was processed by the aggregation processing stage, the visualization processing stage binding at least some of the data provided to the visualization processing stage for rendering to an output device.
 7. The at least one computing device of claim 6, wherein the visualization processing stage provides basic user interface building blocks that render data based on the at least some of the data bound by the visualization processing stage.
 8. A machine-readable storage medium for storing data, instructions, or other information for more than a transitory time period, the machine-readable storage medium having instructions recorded thereon for at least one processor of a computing device, when the at least one processor executes the instructions, the computing device performs a method comprising: executing an analytic system having a plurality of processing stages of a pipeline, each processing stage of the plurality of processing stages having a respective data contract with a corresponding immediately adjacent processing stage within the pipeline, the respective data contract describing inter-stage data provided by either the corresponding immediately adjacent processing stage to the each processing stage or from the each processing stage to the corresponding immediately adjacent processing stage, the each processing stage being completely agnostic with respect to a data schema and semantics of the inter-stage data, wherein when a change occurs with respect to data provided to a processing stage of the pipeline, in order to accommodate the change, a data contract that specifies a description of the data to be provided to the processing stage is changed and processing logic of the processing stage of the pipeline remains unchanged.
 9. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises: rendering, by one processing stage of the plurality of processing stages, the inter-stage data based on the respective data contract between the one processing stage and a previous immediately adjacent processing stage within the pipeline.
 10. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein one processing stage of the plurality of processing stages comprises a plurality of user interface building blocks, each user interface building block being for rendering the inter-stage from a previous immediately adjacent processing stage within the pipeline based on the respective data contract between the one processing stage and the previous immediately adjacent processing stage.
 11. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the data contract between two of the plurality of processing stages filters out any data that does not conform to the data contract such that only data that conforms to the data contract is provided to one of the two of the plurality of processing stages that consumes the data.
 12. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein when an instrumentation methodology of a data source changes, performing only a reconfiguration of at least one of the respective data contracts results in an analytic system being capable of working with data conforming to the changed instrumentation methodology.
 13. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein: a first processing stage of the plurality of processing stages is a collection processing stage for collecting data from at least one data source; a second processing stage is an aggregation processing stage for consuming and processing data from the collection processing stage; and a third processing stage is a visualization processing stage for consuming and rendering data from the aggregation processing stage.
 14. A machine-implemented method for analyzing data provided from at least one data source, the machine-implemented method comprising: executing an analytic system having a plurality of processing stages of a pipeline, each processing stage of the plurality of processing stages having a respective data contract with a corresponding immediately adjacent processing stage within the pipeline, the respective data contract specifying a data schema for inter-stage data produced either from the corresponding immediately adjacent processing stage to the each processing stage or from the each processing stage to the corresponding immediately adjacent processing stage, the each processing stage being completely agnostic with respect to the data schema and semantics of the inter-stage data, wherein: the machine-implemented method is implemented by at least one computing device, and when a change occurs with respect to data provided to a processing stage of the pipeline, in order to accommodate the change, a data contract that specifies a description of the data to be provided to the processing stage is changed and processing logic of the processing stage of the pipeline remains unchanged.
 15. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the analytic system is a web-analytic system.
 16. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising: filtering out data not conforming to any one of the respective data contracts such that each processing stage of the plurality of processing stages that consumes data based on the any one of the respective data contracts is provided with only data conforming to the any one of the data contracts.
 17. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, wherein: one of the respective data contracts specifies a range of values for an item of data, and the machine-implemented method further comprises: filtering out ones of the items of data outside of the specified range of values such that a processing stage of the plurality of processing stages that consumes the items of data based on the one of the respective data contracts is provided with only the items of the data that are within the range of values specified by the one of the respective data contracts.
 18. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, wherein application instrumentation is decoupled from ones of the processing stages that consume data generated through the application instrumentation.
 19. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, wherein: one of the plurality of processing stages is a collection processing stage that uses one of the respective data contracts specifying a data schema of data provided from a data source and consumed by the collection processing stage.
 20. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein: one of the plurality of processing stages is a visualization processing stage that provides basic user interface building blocks that render data based on data bound by the visualization processing stage. 